October 21, 2011

The No-Budget Glory of Chrome's Music Videos

San Francisco's Chrome was one of those phenomenally singular bands that's difficult to put into words the peculiar space they inhibited. Proto-industrial-rock gets thrown around quite a bit in regards to their output but that doesn't really begin to crack the surface. Half Machine Lip Moves was my baptism by molten metal, a Stooges-by-way-of-Luc-Ferrari scum-punk masterpiece that still surprises me with each listen. Their subsequent work rests in a more sleazy, post-glam mindset, one where the electronic inflictions of "new wave" actually fell into the gutter its punk predecessors dug out. Most of these following music videos fall in that time frame, "New Age" from the recently re-issued Red Exposure album and "Firebomb" from 3rd From The Sun a couple years later, and the anti-budget, homemade surrealism of their inverted, scrappy films fit Helios Creed's and the late Damon Edge's modus operandi perfectly.

First, the incredibly underrated compilation track "Meet Me On The Subway," sadly left off their proper albums:

The negative sheen as well as the setting and transportation motifs are carried over in first "New Age" clip, featured in an alternate version with the visuals untreated, and for further desecration, we have an even more mind-bending, disturbing dada-esque take:

Finally, we have "Firebomb," a tawdry crawl through band-performance video cliche's that gels into something unequivocally spectacular:

Hey there are more Chrome tracks from Damon Edge's and Helios Creeds classic period of '79-'80. Helios Creed is working to mix, edit and finish these never before released LOST CHROME TRACKS! Via a project on Pledge Music The link will bring you to the new video by Creed explaining the project and exclusive pledge items for fans to purchase to raise money for the release of THE LOST CHROME TRACKS. All pledges include a digital download of the album when it is done, you can pre-order signed vinyl and CD copies, and all pledgers have access to video and photographic and other exclusive content from Chrome for the next 2 months! http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/chrome Check this link!!!